1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connection structure between a substrate and a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) for a touch panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In accordance with the growth of computers using a digital technology, devices assisting computers have also been developed, and personal computers, portable transmitters and other personal information processors execute processing of text and graphics using a variety of input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse.
In accordance with the rapid advancement of an information-oriented society, the use of computers has gradually increased, and it is difficult to efficiently operate products only using a keyboard and mouse currently serving as an input device. Therefore, the necessity for a device that is simple, has less malfunction, and is capable of easily inputting information has increased.
In addition, techniques for input devices have progressed toward techniques related to high reliability, durability, innovation, designing and processing beyond a level of satisfying general functions. To this end, a touch panel has been developed as an input device capable of inputting information such as text, graphics, or the like.
The touch panel is mounted on a display surface of an image display device such as an electronic organizer, a flat panel display device including a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, a plasma display panel (PDP), an electroluminescence (EL) element, or the like, or a cathode ray tube (CRT) to thereby be used to allow a user to select desired information while viewing the image display device.
The touch panel is classified into a resistive type touch panel, a capacitive type touch panel, an electromagnetic type touch panel, a surface acoustic wave (SAW) type touch panel, and an infrared type touch panel.
These various types of touch panels are adapted for electronic products in consideration of a signal amplification problem, a resolution difference, a level of difficulty of designing and processing technologies, optical characteristics, electrical characteristics, mechanical characteristics, resistance to an environment, input characteristics, durability, and economic efficiency. Currently, the resistive type touch panel and the capacitive type touch panel have been prominently used in a wide range of fields.
As a specific example of a touch panel according to the prior art, there may be a touch panel disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Opened Publication No. 10-2011-0107590.
Describing a structure of the touch panel disclosed in a description of the prior art in a content of Korean Patent Laid-Opened Publication No. 10-2011-0107590, the touch panel is configured to include a substrate, electrodes formed on the substrate, electrode wirings extended from the electrodes and gathered on one end of the substrate, and a controller connected to the electrode wirings through a flexible printed circuit board (hereinafter, referred to as ‘FPCB’).
Here, the FPCB serves to transfer signals generated in the electrode to the controller through the electrode wirings. Here, the FPCB and the electrode wirings may be certainly connected to each other in order to secure reliability of the signal transfer by the FPCB.
However, most of the touch panels according to the prior art including the touch panel disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Opened Publication No. 10-2011-0107590 generally have a structure in which upper and lower substrates are coupled to each other. In this structure, connection portions of the electrode wirings to which the FPCB is connected are formed on each of the upper and lower substrates. In this case, the FPCB should be connected to each of the connection portions of the electrode wirings formed on the upper and lower substrates by a separate assembling process.
As described above, in the connection structure between the substrate and the FPCB in the touch panel according to the prior art, since the FPCB is connected to the connection portions of the electrode wirings formed on each of the plurality of substrates by a separate assembling process, there are problems that it is inconvenient to perform the assembling process, a lead time until the assembling process of the touch panel is completed is delayed, and an assembling device is added.